Analysis on The Rush from Non-Judgment by Theordore Dalymple

In the article "The Rush from Judgement," Theordore Dalrymple argues that refraining from making judgements creates an unhealthy society. Judgements are usually evaluations of certain behaviors or ideas. Dalrmple believes that those who refrain from making judgments practice self deception. Self deception is the generally defined as the practice of deceiving oneself, which in turn hinders us from attaining self knowledge. The number one problem associated with self deception is that it has the capability of creating moral dilemmas, such that people use it as a "prophylactic against leaning from experience," according to Dalrymple. Because one knowingly deceives oneself into believing something even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. The main driver of self deception is self interest. Due to our concern for our own well being we choose to believe and hold certain beliefs. Dalrymples argument is that by refraining from making judgements we are refusing to evaluating what is acceptable in a society and we let certain behaviors such as crime and brutality to flourish. We make decisions and allow certain behaviors that create unhealthy lifestyles to be acceptable because as a society we are refusing to pass judgments.

Dalrymple offers different examples of "nonjudgmental" individuals and the serious implications this attitude has own their lives and those around them. His evidence ranges from the simplest form of non-judgementalism to the strongest. The simplest form being one of Dalrymple patients who refused to pass judgement on his two roommates after they had "recently decamped, stealing his [prized] possessions." The implications of this will be that this patients will not be able to learn from his exper...

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...ur own misery. The problems that arise from this belief is that it prevents individuals from learning from past experiences. Due to the overwhelming evidence presented by Dalrymple to support this claim i wholeheatedly agree that suspending judgements creates a society where their are no standards about what kinds of behaviors are acceptable. It also puts limitations on what we as individuals believe we can accomplish especially coming from a society where due to the "absence of an interest or career," individuals take the path of least resistance and allow cultural pressure to determine their livelihoods. Also we deceive ourselves into believing the choice to make decisions to alleviate our suffering has been taken way from us. Dalrymple assertion could not conclude this any better that "non-judgmentalism is at best indifference to the suffering of others."